Guard-rail and lantern holder.



No. 807,189. 'PATENTED DEC. 12, 1905.

D. P. MCCARTHY.

GUARD RAIL AND LANTERN HOLDER. APPLICATION FILED 0011s. 1905.

v .ATTORNEY PATENT orrion.

DANIEL F. MCCARTHY, OF WATERBURY, CONNECTICUT.

' GUARD-RAIL AND LANTERN HOLDER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

PatenteoLDec. 12, 1905.

Application filed October 13, 1905. Serial No. 282,589.

To aZZ whom it puny concern:

Be it known that I, DANIEL F. MCCARTHY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Waterbury, county of New Haven, State of Connecticut, have invented a new and useful Guard-Rail and Lantern Holder, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to the class of guardrail and lantern holders which forms the subject of Letters Patent No. 791,713, granted to me June 6, 1905, of which I am sole owner.

The object of the present invention is to provide certain improvements upon my said former invention, which include the use of" a standard instead of a shank to carry the railholders and head, the provision of means for supporting the standard upon the top of the ground instead of driving it into the ground, the provision of an additional rail -holder upon a portion or all of the standards to provide for guarding the corners of excavations, and the provision of a hole in the rail-holders provided with lantern-holders, which enables the user to look a lantern securely in place by means of an ordinary padlock.

With these and other objects in view my invention consists in certain details of construction, which I will now describe and then specifically point out in the claims hereunto appended.

In the accornpanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, Figure 1 is a perspective illustrating a form of my novel guardrail and lantern holder in use, in which the standards are provided with heavy bases upon which they rest; Fig. 2, a perspective, on an enlarged scale, of a form of my novel guardrail and lantern holder in which the standard is provided with an additional rail-holder to adapt it for use at corners of excavations, trenches, holes in a roadway, &c., where it is required to support guard-rails at an angle to each other; and Fig. 3 is a view illustrating a form of my novel guard-rail and lantern holder in which the standard is supported by legs, in the present instance a tripod, and also illustrating a lantern locked in place in a lantern-holder by the shackle of a padlock which incloses the bail of the lantern and is passed through a hole in the rail-holder.

10 denotes the standard; 11, the head; 12,

rail-holders, two or three of which may be provided on each standard and one or more of which are provided with lantern-holders 13. There two rail-holders are used, they are placed opposite to each other, as shown, and

where a third rail-holder is provided it is ordinarily placed midway between the other two. The guard-rails used are ordinarily narrow planks or strips two and one-half inches (more or less) in thickness. The rail-holders extend outward from the standard horizontally and then upward at right angles to the standard, the upright portions of the railholders standing away from the standards far enough to receive the guard-rails loosely and to permit a corner guard-rail to be placed at other than a right angle to the side rail, as clearly shown in the drawings. The rail-holders provided with lantern-holders are also provided with holes 1 1, through which the shackle of a padlock may be passed to lock a lantern in place, the bail 15 of the lantern being inclosed within the shackle of the padlock, which is indicated by 16. In attaching a lantern the bail of the lantern is simply placed within the shackle of the padlock, which is passed through the hole in the railholder and then looked in the usual manner. This renders it impossible to remove the lantern without unlocking or breaking the padlock. In the present form of my invention the standard is provided with means for supporting it upon the top of the ground, which may be either a heavy base 17 as in Figs. 1

and 2, or a plurality of legs 18for example, a tripod, as illustrated in Fig. 3.

It is wholly unimportant so far as the principle of the invention is concerned whether the device is forged or cast in a single piece or whether it is made in a number of pieces and the parts welded, riveted, screwed, or otherwise rigidly secured together. It is simply required that the device be made strong and heavy enough to remain firmly in place and to hold rails and lanterns securely against the possibility of being blown down or being displaced under the ordinary conditions of use, it being of course understood that the holders are liable to be subjected to rough usage in transportation and are liable to be thrown about upon rocks and frozen ground.

Having thus described my invention, I claim 1. Aguard-rail and lantern holder comprising a standard provided with a support to rest upon the ground, a head, a rail-holder extending outward and upward from the standard and provided with a hole to receive a padlock, for the purpose set forth, and a lantern-holder extending from the rail-holder below said hole, whereby the bail of a lantern resting on the lantern-holder may be embraced by the rail-holders being provided with lanternshackle of a padlock passing through said hole. holders.

2. A guard-rail and lantern holder compris- In testimony whereof I afiix my signature in ing a standard provided With a support to rest presence of two Witnesses. 5 upon the ground, a head and rail holders eX- 'DANIEL F. MCCARTHY.

tending therefrom at angles to each other and WVitnesses: adapted to support rails at angles to each other, DAVID A. MCCARTHY,

for the purpose set forth, one or more of said TM. H. LOWE. 

